As far as making hybrid game goes:- Systems designed for CYOA (Twine, Undum, Choicescript) make creating CYOA very easy, at the expense of power, which may make them too limitied for making parser IF. They also integrate nicely into a web browser.- Systems designed for IF are more general purpose, but require more effort to build. It's possible to do a CYOA game within these systems, but the CYOA generally doesn't integrate as nicely with the browser.- Writing the CYOA part in a CYOA system, the parser part in an IF system, then running them as two separate games, somehow making them communicate state... Hmmm... It would be possible to have an Inform game use Vorple to talk to the CYOA game. It would be pretty straightforward to get Undum to listen to that, and probably possible to get Twine with a modded Sugarcube to listen. OTOH, this would integrate really poorly with the save/restore systems.- Writing the CYOA part in a CYOA system, and creating a program (in a non-IF-CYOA language) that can convert that part to parser IF source (I7 extension is certainly possible, maybe an A4/5 module) is also doable. (The final game would be the same as if it were written purely in the IF language, but the CYOA development would be nicer.)

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Duncan_B wrote:My unfinished game "Space Mercenary" (which will, with 99.5% likelihood, remain unfinished) was a CYOA/parser hybrid. Most of the game is played through simple, numbered choices, but getting more in-depth item descriptions (no "look" or "examine," just the name of the thing), accessing cargo or inventory, providing answers when on jobs, and speaking passwords were done through "commands" proper. Granted, it was all done through a parser because it was in ADRIFT 4, so maybe it doesn't count.

That was the kind of thing I had in mind for a CYOA / parser hybrid. Most of the game would be CYOA - thus neatly skipping the necessity to spend an age creating descriptions and actions for walls, tables, chairs and the like - but when required (if you need to input a password or something similar), parser commands could be entered.

I've used Twine before and I like it, but I'm back in the ADRIFT fold now so I'd sooner write with ADRIFT for the time being. It might not be the ideal tool for a CYOA / parser hybrid but I know it well enough to bash things together well enough.

I've got no less than four new Best Games Ever hovering around in my mind right now even as I struggle to make time and focus on the one I NEED to finish that of course I'm no longer very interested in.

Getting so into Tingalan was a terrible terrible mistake on my part, or at least bad timing.

While working on a project, I'll get inspired to work on another, then another, then returning to an old one to find some flaw (disorganized, not to my current standards, etc.) whereupon I place everything old into a folder (named 'Garbage') and start over, making progress before moving onward in a never-ending cycle of incomplete creation...

I'm working on an epic fantasy CYOA right that ultimately will clock in at about half a million words. I'm not allowing myself to work on anything else, this is my one project for the year and I will see this one thing through for once in my life. It'll be in the branch and bottleneck style with four major bottleneck points, and progress is going well so far.

Although not gonna lie, playtesting Theo's latest game has made me wanna rip off his ideas entir--i mean make something quick and fun as a side project. I just love any kind of wilderness survival thing and always have, and right now I potentially have a few people I could get to actually play it.